A Beautiful Heart

The more hurt and pain you have gone thru in life, the stronger and more

beautiful your heart will be.....



One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he
had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley.



A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There
was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it

truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very
proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful

heart.



Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, "Why your
heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine." The crowd and

the young man looked at the old man's heart. It was beating strongly, but full
of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed

and other pieces put in, but they didn't fit quite right and there were several
jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep

gouges where whole pieces missing.



The people stared. How can he say his heart is more beautiful?? they thought.
The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw

its state and laughed. "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with
mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and

tears."



"Yes," said the old man, "Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with
you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I

have given my love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and
often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the

empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough
edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of

the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the
other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to

me. These are the empty gouges - giving love is taking a chance. Although these
gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of

the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and
fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what

true beauty is?"



The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to
the old man, reached into his perfect young and

beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with
trembling hands.



The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from
his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the

young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.





The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than
ever, since love from the old man's heart flowed into

his.